ISSUED: 20 September 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: Cecelia Mason
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University’s Scarborough Library announces the addition of the Buckles Family Papers to its Archives and Special Collections holdings, thanks to the generous gift of Rose Janke of Kelso, Washington. The library’s Special Collections focus on the history of the tri-county area and this donation provides information on the Buckles family, which settled in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle area in 1719.
The collection comprises published books, correspondence between the Buckles cousins, and publicly available records. It includes information on the Buckles family of Jefferson County, West Virginia, including related families from the area. Janke is a Buckles descendant and received the family’s permission to house the papers at Shepherd because it’s located in the area where the family’s roots began.
According to the research done by Charles E. Buckles that is included in the donation, a Robert Buckles came to America and ended up in what was then Berkeley County, Virginia. His descendants either married into local families like the Gerrards of Gerrardstown, Van Meter, or Lucas, or traveled to other states.
The research done by Buckles family members focuses on Robert Buckles’ descendants and includes records from before the Buckles family migrated out of the Eastern Panhandle. Also included are more contemporary correspondence between the living cousins regarding family research and letters between Frank Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia, and his cousins.
Frank Buckles was the last surviving American World War I military veteran when he died at age 110 on February 27, 2011. He and his wife, Audrey, moved to Gap View Farm in Jefferson County West Virginia in 1954.
Janke’s local representative is Betty Lowe, a Shepherd graduate, Scarborough Society board member, and a local genealogist and historian. At the request of Janke, Lowe arranged for the collection to be donated to the Scarborough Library.
Those interested in viewing the collection should contact Frances Marshall, archivist, and special collections librarian, by email or call (304)876-5417.
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